The present invention relates to an electric charging device for charging a battery of a vehicle, to an electric connection device of a vehicle for charging a battery of the vehicle, to a system for charging a battery of a vehicle and to a method for charging a battery of a vehicle.
Hybrid and electric vehicles at least partially resort to batteries in order to supply their drive train with energy. If the battery of a vehicle is empty, it can be recharged at a charging station by means of a charging device.
The positioning of the vehicle with respect to the charging device as automatically as possible and the connection of the charging device to the vehicle as automatically as possible for the purpose of charging the battery comprise some technical challenges. Automated conductive charging systems require precise guidance of a charging head, for example a connector, of the charging device to a receiving head, for example a connector socket, of a connection device on a vehicle.
On account of their different designs, vehicles often have different positions for the receiving head. In addition, no uniformity is ensured as a result of a receiving head being arranged on the underbody of the vehicle since vehicles have different heights and the underbody of vehicles is therefore at a different height from a base on which the vehicle stands. Vehicles are usually positioned precisely and sometimes also obliquely by their drivers, only apart from an error of approximately +−10 cm. The task of guiding the charging head to the receiving head can be handled, for example, by technically complex robots, for instance having target acquisition, measuring and image processing systems.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,011,066 515 A1 describes an automatic connector station for charging electric and hybrid vehicles. In this case, the vehicle is positioned over a trapdoor. A positioning system detects the position of a connector socket on the vehicle. A connector can be vertically extended and retracted for the purpose of being plugged into and unplugged from the connector socket and is connected to an energy source. On the basis of the detected position of the connector socket on the vehicle, the connector is horizontally displaceable in two dimensions, with the result that the connector enters the connector socket when vertically extended.